This was the last i-view given by the Captain of SK|Ladies. On the 15-01-2004 around 22:20 she was answering to the question about “SK|Becca”.
It´s a sad moment for SK and for the all the Female Community, but we all know that they will “come back” stronger than ever…
GL to “THE LADIES”

Captain of the Swedish National Female Team which managed to win the
Nations Cup in winter 02-03. She has also been in some well known CS
Clans before and improved a lot during the past months. Is a great addition to the team with experience and skills.

Fraglíder: Hy Tess, thanks for doing this interview. Do you mind introducing yourself, and telling us a bit about your history?

SK|Tess: Hey. My name is Therese Novik, alias Tess. I’ve been playing
CS since version 1.1 (started in August 2001), and I’m now found in the SK.Ladies.

Fraglíder: FRAGlíder will take a female team to FRANCE to ESWC 2004, how do you see such thing, what improvements you think this can bring to female Counter Strike?

SK|Tess: My personal view is that the more girls playing the better! I think its one step closer to more professional girls in gaming as well. Personally I always want to play vs. good teams, boys or girls it doesn’t matter.

Fraglíder: What was your reaction to CyberX Games flop?

SK|Tess: I thought it was a really bad ending to something that could have been really good. Still as so many first-time events it’s CRITICAL to have an experienced staff, a good schedule, and time to work out problems that will show and apparently they didn’t have this.

Fraglíder: Do you think that this will have repercussions in future events?

SK|Tess: I hope not, but I’m thinking it will. This is NOT the way to attract possible sponsors, rather the way to scare them off for good.

Fraglíder: What do you know about Female Portuguese teams or Portuguese counter strike community in general?

SK|Tess: Well, here I’m ashamed to admit that I know nothing at all.
Still it would be strange if you didn’t have any good girls hiding somewhere 😉

Fraglíder: In which events will SK|ladies play in 2004?

SK|Tess: At the moment, we’re active in the online league of ESL, large tournaments, well we are talking about some, still no decisions on where to go. But we’ll let you know as soon as we know!

Fraglíder: Recently Griffin “shaGuar” Benger has written an article about Counter-Strike’s money system, and how it can be improved. Valve is now doing something about this, on how to reward the CT’s on a money time out instead of punishing them. Do you have any opinions on this?

SK|Tess: I agree to that CT’s shouldn’t be punished if the round time goes out and they didn’t plant, then the CT’s have reached their goal. And that removing the money given to serving T’s after a round camp-out is good as well, since the T’s have cheaper weapons. Stopping the round timer after a plant means that T will have more time to plant and giving them +800$ if they plant but not succeed, well we’ll see how that will work out. Hopefully it’ll be a faster game. Still it means that the rounds will have to be shorter, otherwise the T can wait until there’s like only 20 seconds left, rush a bomb spot and plant. Since the changes haven’t been applied yet, it’s hard to say what will come of it.

Fraglíder: What’s the secret of the success of SK.Ladies? The team captain :)?

SK|Tess: Hard work, good girls, a good captain, + having a lot of fun together.

Fraglíder: When you started playing Counter-Strike, did it ever cross your mind that you would be able to play at such a high level?

SK|Tess: When I started? No, back then I was thrilled if I only got 1 guy, and if you got an HS, you knew it was only luck. A score of 3-25 was good back when I started ;). But I did dream of getting better, and I started working to reach that goal. I still dream, since you can ALWAYS improve your game play.

Fraglíder: What kind of hardware do you use?

SK|Tess: I’ve bought my PC part by part, upgrading it, when I had the money to do it. Right now, it’s really good:

Mouse: Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 3.0
Mousepad: fUnc sUrface black 1030
Headphones: Plantronics DSP 500
Monitor: Compaq 171 FS; NEEDS REPLACING (it’s from 1995 or something… the only “bad” equipment I got)
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz
Memory: 1024 MB DDRAM
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra (256 MB)
Operating System: Windows XP Pro
Sound Card: (Creative SoundBlaster Live! ; only when listening to music with the surround system)/ Plantronics 500DSP
Connection: DSL BoStream (2.5 MB down speed, 768 kb/s up speed, cost: ~449 SEK/month which is about 49 €/month)
Hard DriveSpace: 180 GB

Fraglíder: How long do you see yourself continuing with Counter Strike, or even E-sports in general?

SK|Tess: I’ll play CS until I’ve gotten tired of it, I doubt that I’ll be involved in E-sports after I quitted CS.

Fraglíder: What’s a regular day for you look like?

SK|Tess: I get up around 07-09 (depending on when my school starts), I leave my daughter Rebecca at kindergarten and go to school. I’m usually home around 16, I pick up Rebecca from kindergarten, give her and my fiancée some food, then playtime with Rebecca, and/or doing household stuff, like laundry, cleaning etc. Around 18-19 o’clock, I go up to my study-room to “study”. This means study for the first 1-2 hours, then its CS time! Usually from 20.00-00.00, that’s the clans’ pcw time. After 00.00, (if its not weekend) it’s off to sleep, if its weekend, well then it’s playing until 04.00. Weekend-days are “holy”… that’s family time; we’re usually out doing things together and so.

Fraglíder: Recently you made a Counter Strike movie that is already posted in “ FRAGlíder mirrors” are you a Fan of Counter Strike movies?

SK|Tess: O YES! I love to watch Counter Strike movies, I think I have like 30 saved on my PC right now. It’s perfect for those times when my Internet decides to not work 😀

Fraglíder: Do you like to say something to Portuguese girls that play counter-strike or leave them a message?

SK|Tess: That hopefully we’ll meet them @ LAN, and I’m sure we’re going have fun. Don’t listen to people saying girls can’t play CS; just show them that they are wrong. And that they should keep on playing, because you’ll never know where you’re going to end up!

Fraglíder: Do you feel that Rebecca 🙂 is ready to take her´s mom place in SK Ladies? I can almost see… “SK is proud to announce some changes in the Ladies Team… Please welcome SK|Becca… posted by bds” 😉

SK|Tess: hehehe Well no, not due to the fact that she’s only 6 years old ;), but she has epilepsy, so sitting long hours at a PC isn’t good for her. Still if or should I say WHEN she’s good enough I’m sure she’ll do really well in a clan like SK ;D

Fraglíder: Thanks for doing this interview Tess, anything else you would like to say? And good luck to you and SK|Ladies.

SK|Tess: Just thank you for the interview, and remember it is FUN. If you take the fun out of CS, there’s no point in playing it!

* Please comment this i-view in english. Tks !